This encyclopedia is intended for research and teaching. Within the field of applied
animal ethology, the study of farm animal behavior, there are widely differing views of what
actions constitute a given behavior. The duration of a given behavior might prevent it's
inclusion into an ethogram. This encyclopedia will provide a standard for what actions compose
a given behavior.

Who is creating this project?

The Encyclopedia of Farm Animal Behavior is being undertaken by the United States Department of Agriculture,
Agriculture Research Service, Southern Plains Area, Livestock Issues Research Unit,
Multimedia Division.

Where did the definitions came from?

Reprinted or adapted by permission from Dictionary of Farm Animal Behavior, second edition,
by J. F. Hurnik, A. B. Webster, and P.B. Siegel, 1995 by Iowa State University Press, Ames.

Dr. Frank Hurnik and Iowa State University Press have granted permission for the use of terms
from the book Dictionary of Farm Animal Behavior, second edition to be used in this
encyclopedia. Without this permission this project would not be at it's present stage.

What species are being shown?

We have started with cattle and pig behavior. Dr. Jack Albright has most kindly provided the
raw footage from the video tape "Normal and Abnormal Behavior in Domestic Livestock Used
for Research" to use as a starting point in this project.. This footage was funded by
National Agricultural Library's Animal Welfare Information Center and
done at Purdue University. Images from this source contain a reference.
Additional images have been collected by the staff of the USDA-ARS Livestock Issues Research Unit.

How are images selected?

Dr. Julie Morrow, Jeff Dailey and Adam Lewis will select the images to be used for a given behavior and
then submit them to the review panel. Members of NCR-131
Animal Care and Behavior will
vote on a given image until
the video clip representing the behavior is acceptable. Once a majority of the
review panel has agreed to a video clip it will be listed as an approved definition.

Dr. Ted Friend at Texas A&M used the project for a
class he taught during the Fall of 2000. His students voted and commented on the behaviors. Hopefully this preliminary review
will make the work of the NCR-131 committee easier.

If an image was accepted by the review panel but not by the authors of Dictionary of Farm
Animal Behavior then the definition of the behavior will be changed from that given in
Dictionary of Farm Animal Behavior and the reason for the change will be noted.

What can you do if you do not agree with a behavior?

A comment form will be provided. Your comments will be used by the review panel to evaluate
images on at least a yearly basis.

How to submit images for the encyclopedia?

We welcome any group or individual to submit images to the project. Please contact
Jeff Dailey if
you feel you have any examples that might able to be included in the project. A title shot
indicating the source of any video footage is included in the video entry. We are currently able to
use any format VHS tapes (PAL/NTSC) and NTSC S-VHS tapes. If you feel your format might
be a problem please contact us. We will return all tapes submitted to us for use in this project.

Permissions for use of images

The
images are in the public domain and are therefore freely available for use. It's
suggested that you download any images that you plan to use during a presentation
to your computer.

Suggested format for publication citation

A
suggested credit would be: USDA-ARS-Livestock Issues Research Unit.

A
suggested format for publication citation would be: <author's name>
<title of document> <<URL>> <date of document>
(Accessed <date accessed>). See CITING ONLINE SOURCES:
Advice on online citations formatsfor more information on this topic. An
example would be
<http://www.liru.asft.ttu.edu/EFAB/EFABVideo/L10112S.mpg> (Accessed
<Feb. 14, 2001>).

System Requirements

The
video files presented in this database are in *.MPG format. You will need a web
browser that is configured to playback this type of file format. We are
presenting files in MPEG format as this is a video standard.

We recommend a
Pentium, PowerMac or equivalent system to view the files in the database. A
minimum of 16 megabyte of RAM should be present in the system. A direct high
speed connection to the Internet is also recommended. An ISDN or greater speed
connection is suggested to those browsing the video section of the database.

Every
effort will be made to limit the size of the image files. Video files are very
large even when compressed. Ten seconds of video can quickly take up over 1
megabyte of space. Please be aware of this. File size will be given beside
the video icon for each entry.

All video
have been
captured at 30 frames per second (FPS). Playback on you system should be at this
rate. If your system is not able to playback MPEG files at 30 FPS, be aware that
the behavior that you are viewing is not the same as what is taking place in
real time. Digital
video (DV) quality sound and video is used for most entries.
DV allows for high quality images without generation loss.

Some MPEG players have a diagnostics
tool. By experimenting with the setting you can ensure that your system is
playing the clip back at real speed. Newer systems can play back video in excess
of 30 FPS. If you are lucky enough to have this problem turn your MPEG viewer
rate control to the ON position.

The
speed of your internet connection will play a significant role in how fast a
given image will be downloaded. The Internet Connection
Speedometer link will calculate your connection speed.

Past Versions of the EFAB
Project

Past versions of the EFAB project are not
updated or maintained. They are still available for use for a look at the
evolution of the project.

Version 3 Notes: The
site features a new design, and the addition of search capabilities for both
behaviors and definitions. The new database driven site allows for easier
correction, and updates of the information presented. The site is now hosted
on a faster server and our connection to the Internet has been increased from
10MB/sec to 155MB/sec.

The definitions provided by Drs. Hurnik, Webster and
Siegel with permission from the Iowa State University Press
have provided a needed starting point for the project. Technical assistance
for the design and layout has been provided by Dr. Haitao Jiang, Glen Gowen
and Yvonne Dailey.